An interesting “out” (if a stairway is available), described by Professor Hoffmann . . .

[Tom Sawyer]

Alas, for many reasons, this would work for very few (if any) of us. This is from the final installment (1886) of Professor Hoffmann's The Young Wizard, which was serialized in The Boy's Own Paper (and elsewhere). The corresponding volume of The Boy's Own Annual can be seen on Google Books:

If you make a mistake, as you undoubtedly will now and then, do not lose your presence of mind, but get out of it as well as you can, and if you can bring the trick to some sort of conclusion, one half the audience will not know that there has been a fiasco at all. Hope for better luck next time, and proceed with undiminished confidence to your next trick. If the worst comes to the worst, do not, as a youthful conjurer of my acquaintance once did, go out and weep on the stairs. It is true he was a very youthful conjurer, and, if I remember right, he was kissed all round by the ladies to console him for his misfortunes, but I cannot recommend his example for general adoption.

The Young Wizard was also serialized in Golden Days for Boys and Girls. Interestingly, the last two sentences in the above quotation do not appear in the Golden Days version.

[Bill Mullins]

So for those people who use magic to meet girls, the key is to screw up the trick?

Man, I should be getting my ashes hauled a lot more often.

[Pete McCabe]

You don't have to screw up to go cry on the stairs.

[performer]

The first part of Professor Hoffman's advice was actually very good indeed. I am beginning to warm to the good professor. Up to now I didn't know much about him except that he had the same name as me. However, I had learned the pass in ten minutes from his instruction when I had been told it would take me months. The thing is that until recently I had no idea that it was he who had written the description that enabled me to do it. It must have been a bloody good description considering it was written in the century before last.

Proof of my repeated dictum that there is no point reading books written after 1954.

[observer]

If the worst comes to the worst, do not, as a youthful conjurer of my acquaintance once did, go out and weep on the stairs. It is true he was a very youthful conjurer, and, if I remember right, he was kissed all round by the ladies to console him for his misfortunes,

That's how I close all my shows!